Ellen Show producers reached out to Steve in September 2007 after his YouTube Channel exploded with hundreds of videos teaching people how to do the coolest science experiments at home, including his exploding soda geyser using Mentos and Diet Coke. Steve’s first appearance on the show featured a heavy gas (sulfur hexafluoride) that made Ellen’s voice sound very low, a chemical erupting foam called Elephant’s Toothpaste and Steve’s signature trash can smoke ring launcher. Before leaving the stage, Ellen gave her executive producers the “nod” and Steve was invited back to the show for another appearance just a few months later. With nearly 20 appearances to his credit, Steve has become a regular guest and “friend of the show.”

Spangler Science Classics

Spangler’s original science demonstrations created for the Ellen Show have become television classics over the years that are often times emulated or recreated on other talk shows. Over the years, Steve has blasted the audience with flying rings of smoke, vanished Ellen in a giant liquid nitrogen cloud, turned leaf blowers into an arsenal of do-it-yourself ping pong ball shooters, covered the studio in 5 miles of toilet paper using the power of air, levitated Ellen on a bed of nails, launched 3,000 Alka-Seltzer powered rockets, taught viewers how to walk on water using two tons of cornstarch quicksand, detonated exploding pumpkins, surprised Ellen with exploding bubbles filled with hydrogen and oxygen gas, decorated the studio in mountains of rainbow foam, propelled Ellen on a homemade hovercraft and performed the world’s simplest card trick using 10,000 exploding playing cards. All in all, Steve Spangler has shared more than 75 science experiments and cool science demonstrations on the show.

Check out all of the behind the scenes photos of Steve’s Cornstarch Quicksand experiment.